Sale Sharks bid to banish another East Midlands Premiership hoodoo on Saturday afternoon when they step out at Northampton Saints.(2pm)

After ending an eight year wait to record a win at Leicester last month, Sale’s latest road trip takes them to Franklin’s Gardens - a venue where the Sharks haven’t tasted victory since 2006 - the year they won the Premiership.

He was in charge of Northampton’s recruitment policy prior to returning to take charge at Sale in 2011 and worked in tandem at Sale as joint coach with Saints boss Jim Mallinder for three years in the early noughties.

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder played with and coached alongside Steve Diamond at Sale

And with Northampton having recovered from an indifferent start to the campaign by recording four wins from their last five league games to power into fifth place, Diamond is aware that his resurgent Sale will have to be at their very best to prevail.

“We’re going alright but we know we have a daunting task away at Northampton,” Diamond admitted.

“We have to pick up some wins on the road if we want to make the top four but its going to be difficult to do that at Northampton.

“But if we have any ambition of being top four we have to try and eke something out of the game.

“They have been hit with a few international calls but they are going well and won at Saracens last weekend so we have to go there with ambition and to play

Danny Cipriani is restored to the Sale starting line-up for the trip to Northampton

“For us, this season our mentality in away games is that we want to try and win.

We know what their strengths are and we have to operate around that.”

Sale will step out at Franklin’s Gardens in seventh place in the table but just five points away from fourth-placed Wasps and with a precious game in hand.

The Sharks have only lost once since Boxing Day and are the only Premiership team still unbeaten at home.

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“I think we are on target and if anything we have a little bit underachieved to what we could have done,” Diamond added.

“We aren’t thinking that these teams around us and above us in the table are streets ahead of us. We drew with but should have beaten Saracens, we’ve beaten Leicester away and Harlequins,, Exeter, Wasps and Northampton at home so that’s not so bad.

“We’ve got a good side and on our day we can do something but occasionally we tip up.